Abstract

The study focuses on one of the ways to express for eignness of
ethnicities encountered by the inhabitants of Medieval Rus’, namely on
constructing the origin of those ethnicities. The narrative about the
origin of an ethnicity and its ancestors (origo gentis) is known from
European medieval historiography in general. The oldest Russian
chronicles, however, are distinguishable for not only recording the
origin of their own nation, but noting the roots of completely different
cultures, i.e. steppe tribes and northern peoples; later the origin of
Mongols is refl ected in a similar way. The comparison of the Primary
Chronicle and Latin Central European chronicles which were created
almost at the same time period (Chronica Boemorum by Cosmas of Prague,
Chronica et gesta ducum sive principum Polonorum by Gallus Anonymus and
a slightly younger anonymous Gesta Hungarorum) demonstrates that the
primary function of Latin origo gentis was to define the identity of the
medieval gens, which was changing into natio of the High Medieval
Period, and to legitimate its political structures. In these chronicles,
origo gentis never became a separate theme in relation to other nations.
On the contrary, the authors of the oldest Russian chronicles considered
the identifi cation of the origins of the foreign nations to be the key
for recognizing their functions not only in the present or in the past,
but, first and foremost, in the future, in the end time.

Abstract

Conceptual opposition of «vezhestvo» («decency»)/«ignorance» has long
been an ethico-aesthetic basis for many works of Russian literature and
folklore, thus defining their ideological thematic, and structural confi
guration. In oral epos, «vezhestvo» appears as life-constructing value
which is based upon a hero’s awareness of his own destiny and means of
its implementation, such as particular behavioral style, experience,
knowledge and skills on dealing with hostile forces, acceptance of an
idea of the world’s hierarchy, reliance on help from divine powers,
parents’ blessing for great doings, etc. «Ignorance» implies,
respectively, incomprehension or rejection of these values. In literary
epos, «vezhestvo» continues to function as a sign of traditional
spirituality, thereby reproducing a national model of the world as a
synthesis of many beginnings: courtesy, erudition, intellect, and
exactingness of aesthetic taste of the Russian. In the context of
literary search in the second half of the 18th century, a trend of
jokey, ironic outplaying of typical situations, which a man had been
encountered from the times of epic heroes, became stronger. The most
representative examples of interpretation of a literary concept of
«vezhestvo» of that period one can fi nd in bogatyr poems by N.A. L’vov
and N.M. Karamzin.

Abstract

Thaddeus Bulgarin (1789–1859) – a writer, critic and publishеr. During
his activity hеtried to find his place in the history of both Polish and
Russian literature and culture. However, neither Poles nor Russian
considered him as their national author, despite the fact he was a very
popular figure in the first half of the 19th century. Although
Bulgarin’s heritage consists of numerous writings in the field of
science-fiction literature, his name cannot be аlsо found among its
creators. This article analyses the most significant visions of future
by Bulgarin, in particular regarding the development of technology and
its impact on human beings. Then it could be said that it was not Julius
Verne, but Thaddeus Bulgarin, was the first one toprovide readers with
travels to the centre of the Earth.

Abstract

Julius Margolin (1900–1971), a Jewish author of Russian and Polish
origins, wrote his famous Russian-language novel A Journey to the
Land Zeka in pre-State Israel, one year after his release from a
Soviet concentration camp (1946–1947). Having been one of the earliest
testimonies about Stalin’s atrocities, this book was published in 1952
in its abridged version, whereas the unabridged version came out only in
2016. While the social and political significance of this book has been
repeatedly discussed, its poetical and discursive strategies are
understudied. This article makes a few steps in the direction of
understanding of Margolin’s book seriocomic style, discourse of
fairytale and fantasy, the Palestine-Zionist text, the sea motif and
other themes. The analysis unveils the author’s ambitious literary
project that hides behind the historical testimony and is intended to
strengthen it.

Abstract

Provence has been playing an important role in Russian literature for
two hundred years. Numerous Russian artists have visited this French
region or settled there for a longer time; enchanted by the beauty of
south European nature and mild climate, they depicted it in their poems,
stories or travel journals. The list includes, e.g. Semen Nadson,
Alexandr Kuprin, Ivan Bunin, Sasha Chyorny, Vladimir Nabokov. Galina
Kuznetsova (1900–1976), representative of the first wave of Russian
emigration, spent several years in Provence. The poet lived in Grasse on
and off from 1927 to 1942. Her stay on the south of France greatly
influenced the journal she then wrote (Грасский дневник, 1967), and her
only poetry collection published in her lifetime, entitled The Olive
Garden (Оливковый сад, 1937). This article covers the Provence threads
present in both texts. Kuznetsova depicts in these works the beauty of
exotic nature, combining descriptions of landscape with her own
emotional states, using solutions characteristic of impressionism.

Abstract

In this article, the analysis has been subjected to discussing the
autobiographical novel: The Prologue of Galina Kuznetsova- the
representative of the Russian Emigration and the First Wave. This
article presents the process of formation of the novel and identifies
the impact of the personality and work of Ivan Bunin on its shape.
Kuznetsovas novel was presented in a broader context of autobiographical
novels of the Russian Emigration.

Abstract

An aim of this article was to analyze and interpret multifaceted
semantic of motives for lying in the novel Women’s Lies by
Lyudmila Ulitskaya mainly on the basis of the text’s content as well as
related to it preceded annotations, essayistic and journalistic
utterances of an actress. We declare that the “laboratory analyze” of
women’s lies in its various scenes makes a leading opinion and basic
motive of the novel. At the beginning of the conclusion we are
concentrating on the author`s definition of lie, so we can later refer
to mythological-historical-literary roots. In the context of above
mentioned facts, it is interesting that Ulitskaya divides lie on
masculine and feminine. Ulitskaya, in her typical way, referring to
cultural-religious archetypes and symbols, indicates the roots of
masculine lie pertaining even to the Old Testament, as contrary to
“pleasant feminine lie”. In this regard, the mythological characters of
Odysseus and Penelope are also recognized as representatives. After all,
in the content of the analyzed piece are only presented various examples
of female lies, and, in our opinion, exposed as an element of the third
plane, which unites natural sciences and literature.

Abstract

The article studies such cultural phenomenon as madness in its romantic
(Edgar Poe) and expressionistic (Ivan Shmelyov) interpretation. Refl
ecting upon the philosophical concept introduced by Michel Foucault the
author analyzes how visual-plastic and verbal experience of interpreting
madness in terms of literature is realized. Verbal and literary
peculiarities of creating an aesthetic image of madness within the
romantic canon in Poe’s story is compared to the specific features of
verbal and visual images created in the style of expressionism by
Shmelyov. Techniques of literary image visualization, revealing the
specific nature of interaction between different forms of literature,
art, cinema peculiar to the first third of the twentieth century, are
studied in the process of transition from the aesthetics of story to the
aesthetics of presentation.

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the determination of the types and functions
of “someone else’s word”, i.e. intertextual relationships, present in
political dramas of contemporary Russian writers. The author focuses on
two types of intertexts such as quotes and allusions; determines their
importance to the dramatic work as a whole, and distinguishes
topic-related groups of texts to which dramatists refer. The conclusions
of the study incline to place the phenomenon of political drama between
what is “literary” and “social”, “eternal” and “up-to-date”.The analysis
was carried out on the materials of dramas such as: Putin.doc by
Victor Teterin, Sentry (Часовой)
by Siergiej Reshetnikov, Meat by Olga Pogodina, and Beria
by Dmitry Karapuzov.

Abstract

The Old Believers appeared on the Polish territories in 18th century.
They are a bilingual community. They use Russian dialect and Polish
language, depending on communicative situation. Polish influence on the
Old Believers’ dialect increased after two World Wars, when they became
separated from their co-religionists in other countries and had more
often contacts with Polish neighbours. In Old Believers’ Russian dialect
more and more Polish elements are noticable, especially in lexis. In the
technical terminology there are a lot of borrowings from Polish language
caused above all by the civilization progress. The aim of this article
is to analyze the lexis borrowed from Polish language in the field of
technics in Russian dialect of the Old Believers of Suwałki-Augustów
Region and furthermore confront it with the material gathered in
“Słownik gwary staroobrzędowców mieszkających w Polsce” (1980 a.d.). The
gathered material was analyzed paying special attention to assimilation
to the Russian dialect.

Abstract

This paper discusses the linguistic features of political propaganda in
the Polish newspaper “Trybuna Radziecka”, which was published in Moscow
in 1927–1938 and edited by Polish left-intelligentsia, living in USRR as
political émigrés in the interwar period. “Trybuna Radziecka” as the
other Polish newspapers published in Soviet Russia was a part of the
Soviet press. It entirely depended on Soviet authorities. Its language
reflected the Soviet Russian language and was an example of political
jargon typical for all communist newspapers of the interwar period.